Thursday, 12 July 2007

The flick serve and receiving it.

The flick serve is a must to have in your armoury of shots. It must be deceptive and undistinguishable from your normal low serve (notice that I don't call it the short serve !!)

When I was a player I would always flick at least once in the first few points just so that it would keep the receiver honest and normally keep the pressure off my low serve.

But not only is it important to have a good flick serve but it's also important to be able to play it as a receiver.

Shots and footwork are constantly being added to, if you have watched any international badminton recently, you will see that for the flick serve when receiving the receiver's footwork is simply a couple of steps and a short jump backwards to try and hit the shuttle down or at least flat and hard. Most of the time they were off balance when hitting and their recovery was minimal (poor).

Their priority was just to hit down even if the shuttle was slightly behind them, they had no time to do a few steps then a scissors jump. Watch the chinese especially in the Sudirman cup their only priority was to hit down from the flick, their footwork and recover was in a way secondary but obviously practiced.

This is what I will be coaching this weekend to my players, they will not only be practicing the flick serve but the receiving also, then they will practice going forward for the low serve then reacting for a flick. The main objective to be hitting the shuttle down in the shortest time possible. Looking good and recovery will be secondary but also practiced.

3 comments:

Yeah, with flick service by the opponent, I usually end up returning it to just a mid court clear or worst a front line for the opponent to smash! Either way, I think my problem was either I am too near the net for the expected low serve (rush or net play return) or I was to slow to recover and jump backward for the flick.

Hi Doc, first of all I don't know how fit or agile you are so I won't make any assumptions.I will use myself as an example, I am 52 (OLD) and 20 kilos overweight so my reactions are not as they were.I don't get caught out with the flick, I stand a racket's length from the service line and I wait until the shuttle is hit, if it is a flick then my main objective these days is to clear the shuttle to the baseline, I don't try to get behind to hit down simply because unless it is a poor service I won't get there in time. In saying that I can sometimes get my wrist/racket behind enough to dink the shuttle down in the forecourt.

Firstly of course you should practice your footwork (without shuttle)to get you moving backwards as quickly as possible.

Things that you can try if you have the time and inclination are;Stand 2/3 feet behind the service line, non racket leg forward, get a friend to stand midcourt and hit the shuttle behind you as in a flick, this will give you time to see the shuttle and react. Just have in your mind " my objective is to clear the shuttle, push off your front foot, 2 small chasse steps and try and clear the shuttle.

Also when you are receiving in a game, physically prepare for a low serve but mentally prepare for the flick, the low serve is going forward which is easier even if you leave it late.

It is quite difficult to put into words, I would obviousley prefer to actually see you on court where I could help you a lot more.

I will try and video one of my players reacting to the flick so you can see what I mean, I will add it to my site with my other videos.

I'm 34 y.o. just around my ideal body weight. I'm also a newbie at badminton prob a class "E", or low intermediate class perhaps. I'm agile but not that fast enough, maybe its my footwork and jump. But I wanted to know what the right thing to learn so I'm not going to waste time unlearning the bad habits.

Again thanks for the advice. Wow this will be a great site for us badminton enthusiast here..

About Me

I have played/coached badminton for over 40 years. I am currently the senior coach of my county (state)junior squads that have played and won honours in national tournaments.
I am a Badminton England registered coach, also in the the pool of regional coaches and am the talent identificator for my area of England.